Pak192.Comic V0.7

[Flemmbrav]

Hello everyone!
I'm back on announcement duty, this time we're talking about version 0.7 of Pak192.Comic.
As always, I want to thank all the people working on this!
It is a joy to have this project going still after all those years, and the incredible amount people that put work into this is awesome.



First things first, what did not change?: there are no compaility issues expected with version 0.6 as well as with both release candidates.

So, what changed?



We actually tracked this time! So feel free to take a look at it:

Gameplay changes

- turned "avoid over overcrowding" off by default again
- , and . now work for controlling time in the game
- ( and ) now work for sliced view up/down
- road speeds from 50 to 55 and from 70 to 80
- pricing that considers the actual build year of the vehicle, instead of the introduction year
- Pubs now comsume rum as well
- there is a track/track submenu now
- increased the productivity of the wiredrawer
- higher fix costs for ships
- changed to intro years of 120 and 160 kph track
- tutorial works with the tutorial button now
- playing from 1930 onwoards should feel way more complete now compared to previous versions

New objects

Industry

- European sugar production with beets (farm, fields, refinery)
- biofuel plant
- Additional coal power plant that better fits early years

Infrastructure

- river stop for goods
- letter box stop for road
- docks for pax
- older post office
- track with different kinds of gravel beds
- 1850 station hall
- steel girder bridge for narrowgauge
- HUGE HUGE station hall for people that need to prove they have the biggest network
- narrowgauge tunnel for 50km/h
- 80kph railway bridge
- streetlights as (free) wayobj
- fake city road in cobblestone look
- Lot of new SBB Type N and L Signals

Buildings

- citybuilding "Danivision"
- citybuilding "Keycaps Skyscraper"
- citybuilding "Taipei 101"
- monument "Disco Sphere"
- curiosity "StarGate"
- curiosity "Guardhouse"
- inverse Corner for St. Pölten station building
- alternate version of all Pölten elements
- several new citybuildings across all climates

Vehicles

- more ships for channels
- gigaliner converter for semitrucks
- HHA DT6
- Baden IVh
- a couple of Baden express coaches
- old Baden compartment coaches
- lots of old freigth cars and hoppers
- Baden VIc
- old AC S-Bahn Hamburg
- DRG D21b / C21 Abteiwagen
- DRG "Donnerbüchse"
- DR Rekowagen
- DRG E01
- KPeV EG502
- KPeV EG511
- KPeV ES1
- Getreideschiff
- old postal tram
- prussian G12
- ET 88
- ET 41

Things that walk around

- various new generic pedestrians
- try to spot some easteregg-pedestrians too
- ducks, swans, sharks and a whale
- a fox

Improved objects

- the narrowgauge to road crossings
- some sounds for some trains (not too many yet sadly)
- swapped the first and second player colour for green coaches
- various glitch fixes
- palyer colour for the Alsterdampfers
- player colour for V200
- SBB EW I
- the old track plattforms
- updated DRG coaches
- loading image for beets for many vehicles
- crossing track narrowgauge now fits the whole tile
- SBB PTT
- player colour for bavarian D VIII
- ET 11

Addons

In plus to the "core" Pakset, there are multiple changes to the addons provided within the repository:




New version of the game: The all DACH pakset contains the main pakset and the DACH addons.

Vehicles

- BR 216 "Lollo"
- 4 car OBB Cityjet for Vorarlberg
- Bpm 61 20-70
- SBB Bpm 20-90
- SBB EW IV
- BT EW IV
- orientrote BR 218
- updated Nuremberg subway cars
- new SNCB I6 livery
- update gear values for most british vehicles so they can reach their top speed
- SNCB HLE 17
- SBB IC2000 postal car
- DB Mintling coaches
- fictional BR 427
- BR 423 and BR 430 for BWegt
- BR 422 for VRR
- BR 426 for BOB
- BR 425 for Transdev
- 120km/h Silberling
- more colours for the BR 110, 110.12, 110.3, 111, 112, 113, 140, 141, 150, 151...
- HHA AL
- EMT CLASS 156
- two RZD sleepers
- FLIRT 1 for SBB
- FLIRT 3 for BWegt and SBB
- extra livery for DSB EG
- player colour for class 59, 92, 375, 376, IC225
- 140kph/h TEE VT11.5
- sleeper 61-7034
- update of the docklands units to jakops boogies
- more colours for BR 18.3, 58.2, 75.4
- Wittenberger Kopf
- German luggage cars as empty and piece good cars
- more "preußische Abteilwagen"
- prussian luggage car PWIRP91
- RABe512
- CIWL Lx20
- express coach Bauart 1935

Infrastructure

- tunnel catenary for standard gauge
- side swapped catenary
- infty Tunnel
- vmin = 121 and vmin = 71 signs
- track with different kinds of walls
- infty bridge for track
- two extra platforms based on the 1850 platform
- station hall 1890 in 3 parts as well as an inversed version
- brick build depot
- 1850 station hall in bright colours


Where and what to download

Release of the standard version 0.7.
There are different files generated.
Standard
The Pakset for Simutrans: pak192-comic.zip
The Addons for the Pakset for Simutrans: pak192-addons.zip
The combined file containing the Pakset and the Addons for the Pakset for Simutrans: pak192.comic-serverset.zip
The combined file containing the Pakset and the DACH-region only Addons for the Pakset for Simutrans: pak192.comic-all-DACH.zip
Themes
The Themes: themes.zip


What's missing still?

1) There are only 3 climates actively developed so far, those are Western, Continental and Alpine (temperate, tundra, rocky) - other climates are lacking in city development. If you got cities in those climates, you might want to use the climate tools as public player to switch to a more developed climate. Most factories are not affected.
2) Translations! The German translation now seems pretty complete, while the English translation is still ongoing. And don't mention anything else...
3) Ships, ships and even more ships.
4) Not every mode is able to transport every good at any given time. Best bet is that there is a narrowgauge option for it, second are rail and trucks.

Contribute?!

Feedback always is appreciated!
Please tell us what you like, dislike and would want to have improved!

In plus, freely contributing to the pakset is a thing! Pak192.Comic is open source, freely adjustable and auto compiles from github actions. That means, you could just clone the repository, do some funky changes and have github build your very own version without doing a lot for it. There's no weird encoding, no encrypted values, nothing. If you go to the dat file for your favourite steam engine and change the maximum speed from 100 to 2000, you just did that. It'll appear in the game just like that. Don't like coal power stations? Just get rid of them. Want to have a rainbow coloured subway? Just draw a rainbow on the image of your favourite subway train. That's pretty cool, right? But how about you share your funky changes with the rest of the world by adding them to this repository once they work out just fine. That way you could improve the world!... or well, at least this game.
Link to the GitHub: https://github.com/Flemmbrav/Pak192.Comic

In Plus, there's a lot of stuff to translate. In case you can speak a langauge in plus of German, you're a perfect match for this!

In case you need help modifiing or contributing towateds the game, do not hesitate to ask for some.

[Antonin]

This is good news! Thank you.

I downloaded the file from the link:

"The combined file containing the Pakset and the Addons for the Pakset for Simutrans: pak192.comic-serverset.zip"

But when I extracted the files, I do not see a separate folder for addons. Should I download the addons separately? Or are the addons already combined with the files for the rest of pak192.comic?

I am asking this because I have tried many times to use addons for pak128.Japan, but failed. I think there is something about addons that I do not understand, because I have not had any success using them.

[Flemmbrav]

They are already part of the single folder and act as part of the pakset.

[Antonin]

Thank you very much!

I have to say again that even though all of the paks are fun to play, pak192.comic is special to me because it is very easy on my 66 year old eyes.  The colors and the contrast between the different colors are very pleasant.

I am fascinated by the section of your post called "Contribute?!" but I am totally confused about how to contribute anything beyond city name files. I play pak192.comic with city name files I created for Europe, the Philippines and the US state of Ohio, which is where I live. I would like to either create a rice farm for pak192.comic or add the one from pak128.Japan. But I do not even know where to begin. I have read tutorials on how to create objects, but I am still confused.

[Flemmbrav]

I use Gimp to draw objects, and basically all I do is to take an existing object, that is similar to the one I want to draw, add a new layer and draw "above" it.
The first step would be to copy a farm from the git, install Gimp, open the image, add a new layer, set the pencil size  to 1px and zoom in a lot .

In case you need help, do not hesitate to ask!

[Antonin]

I use Gimp to draw objects, and basically all I do is to take an existing object, that is similar to the one I want to draw, add a new layer and draw "above" it.
The first step would be to copy a farm from the git, install Gimp, open the image, add a new layer, set the pencil size  to 1px and zoom in a lot .

In case you need help, do not hesitate to ask!

I spent many, many hours years ago trying to use Gimp. It was frustrating and produced no usable results. There is a baseball management game that I play where people were using Gimp to create uniforms. I wanted to create uniforms also, but failed completely at using Gimp. It was very frustrating. I'm sure that now, at my age, it would be even more frustrating.

[Flemmbrav]

That's understandable.
Maybe there is a different graphic program you're familiar with? Paint maybe?

[Antonin]

I know the basics of Paint, but I have no artistic skill.

I'm experiencing a slight problem with the new version of the pak. I started a new game with a 500 x 500 map. The start date is 1990. I am using the Philippine cities name file I created. In May 1990 the entire map turned white, except for a few buildings and the player-owned buildings. The sides of some of the buildings are light brown, but the map looks like winter has suddenly come in May 1990.


Now, in August 1990, the map has changed back to its normal colors...

[_Hajo_]

I spent many, many hours years ago trying to use Gimp. It was frustrating and produced no usable results.

I had a similar experience, GIMP was very hard to learn for me too. Now it became my favorite tool for graphics though.

Recently a friend suggested a tool named Krita to me. It's more focused on drawing and painting than GIMP and I had an easier time to get into it. If that also looks too compicated, and you are using Windows, there is Paint.NET, which I've used quite a lot before I learned to use GIMP. It's really easy and still powerful.

You can find Krita and Paint.NET easily with Google. Both are free.

[Oldie]

I humbly suggest the following ideas to the wonderful artists and dat coders here.

1. Buildings: It would be nice to see some cafe's, coffee shops and restaurants (com) buildings.
2. Buildings: (res, mediteranian) Leartins latest beauties are a great addition but how about more "Villa" styles (one storey or garden styles).
3. Factories: A lot more "retail" factories would not go astray. Local shops like a butcher shop based on the market buildings, or a newsagency not unlike the comic book seller. A couple of simple "providors" selling honey, milkshakes, fabric, etc.

And as a special request, there are some absolutely wonderful pieces of architecture, I would request that the artists add a comment to the dat file giving the actual inspiration for the building. The "Elphi" wasn't too hard to find (nor that excellent advertisement with Mr Squid playing "Fur Elise"  ) but there a few like com_cl3_E5_09_27 that I would really like to know what it was based on (if anything).

Please take these as suggestions only, in the hope they could be inspirations. I would have trouble drawing water from a well.

regards
Oldie
 
Oh and one more "simple" request. I am desperate for more "small" buses, i.e. "mini-buses" from say 1970 ish on. I am sure they existed at that time? From about when the Asian vehicle manufacturers started building commercial vehicles. So many small cities could use these instead of the ubiquitous Ikarus 200 series that are total overkill. Aha! I knew they existed ... the dreaded Toyota LiteXYZ series. Much internet material available.

[Oldie]

I'll be quiet after this one. I promise.

How about the "Simudrome" 3x2 sports stadium? Combined tennis, football and ice hockey area with massive passenger attraction, multiple seasons and ... and ...

(ok I promise)

[Matthew]

I have just sat down to manually replace Steam's outdated version of pak192.comic with v0.6... and I discovered that yesterday the Steam DLC was updated to v0.7. Thank you to @Flemmbrav, @Leartin & friends for the beautiful paks and to @Roboron for packaging this for Steam. It is much appreciated!

[Yona-TYT]

Here's a new menu to hold down the [Ctrl] key That is essential for those who play touch screens.

[Bittereinder]

HeyFlemmbrav,

Awesome update.

Will you bring 0.7 to Simutrans Extended as well? I noticed the last nightly build dates back to february 2023.

Perhaps another question: in what way does 0.6 Extended differ from other other Extended packsets? E.g. no diagonal bridges?

I love your pack and would love to do a multiplayer Simutrans Extended Pak192 Comic with friends.
 

[Flemmbrav]

Heyo Bittereinder,

thank you for the praise!

The extended fork is not in development right now.
Personally, I can't get into playing extended, so developing for it doesn't make sense.
A lot of people did lots of awesome stuff for the extended fork, most of it ages before the 0.6, so even though there is an update of the extended fork to that age, it won't include all the things the 0.6 has.

On what's different between our extended fork and other extended paksets, I havce no clue.